Savings And Costs Of A Picture Archiving And Communication System In The University Hospital Utrecht

Abstract
The evaluation of the Dutch PACS project comprises amongst other studies a comparison of the direct financial costs of the present conventional system and the PACSystem. This paper shows that the invest-ment costs of a PACSystem are presently substantially higher than of the present system. These higher investment costs will not be compensated for by savings in the area of materials used, floor space needed, and personnel employed. The only cost effective compensation can be found in a shortening of the length of patient stay in the hospital. Preliminary results of the ongoing experiment suggest that compensation is achieved by an average decrease of one third day. Conditions under which a PACSystem can be more cost effective are being discussed.© (1989) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.

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